Home Office

Refugees: Children

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many unaccompanied child refugees have been received in the UK in each of the last five years.

Lord Bates: Refugee status is conferred following a grant of asylum. An asylum seeker only becomes a refugee once asylum has been granted. Not all asylum seekers are deemed to be refugees and not all refugees claim asylum. Figures on asylum applications for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) are published quarterly by the Home Office in the Immigration Statistics release. The attached table shows total applications of asylum for UASC from 2010 to quarter 3 2015.Asylum applications received from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children1, excluding dependants, 2010 to Q3 2015YearTotal applications2010 1,515 2011 1,248 2012 1,125 2013 1,265 2014 1,945 2015 Q1 - Q3 1,963 Table Notes(1) An Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Child (UASC) is a person under 18, or who, in the absence of documentary evidence establishing age, appears to be under that age, is applying for asylum on his or her own right and has no relative or guardian in the United Kingdom.A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics July to September 2015, is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Public Records

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 15 December (HL3615), in respect of each retention instrument, what were the reasons for deciding not to transfer records to the National Archives, and what was the subject matter of each instrument.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: As set out in the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended), public records selected for permanent preservation are transferred toThe National Archives or an approved place of deposit no later than 20 years after creation, unless an department is authorised to keep them for longer. Such decisions are undertakenwithadvice from the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives.The Access to Public Records Manual published by the National Archives sets out the seven broad grounds for retention, which is attached.Retention instruments can cover multiple applicationsby departments to retain records and the number of applications covered by Lord Chancellor's Instruments 111-119 ranges from 37 to 253, which were submitted by between 8 and 15 departments.The grounds provided by departments that were given permission to retain records under Instruments 111, 113, 114 and 119 are 1,2,4 and 6. Records under Instruments 112, 115, 117 and 118 were retained on grounds 1, 4 and 6 and records under Instrument 116 were retained on grounds 4 and 6. Each of the Instruments therefore covers documents retained on grounds of national security, as well as other administrative reasons.There is a strong public interest in not releasing information which could undermine the safeguarding of national security.



National Archives Access to Public Records 2015
(PDF Document, 288.16 KB)

Public Records

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 15 December (HL3615), whether they will place retention instruments 111 to 119 in the Library of the House.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: As set out in the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended), public records selected for permanent preservation are transferred toThe National Archives or an approved place of deposit no later than 20 years after creation, unless an department is authorised to keep them for longer. Such decisions are undertakenwithadvice from the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives.The Access to Public Records Manual published by the National Archives sets out the seven broad grounds for retention, which is attached.Retention instruments can cover multiple applicationsby departments to retain records and the number of applications covered by Lord Chancellor's Instruments 111-119 ranges from 37 to 253, which were submitted by between 8 and 15 departments.The grounds provided by departments that were given permission to retain records under Instruments 111, 113, 114 and 119 are 1,2,4 and 6. Records under Instruments 112, 115, 117 and 118 were retained on grounds 1, 4 and 6 and records under Instrument 116 were retained on grounds 4 and 6. Each of the Instruments therefore covers documents retained on grounds of national security, as well as other administrative reasons.There is a strong public interest in not releasing information which could undermine the safeguarding of national security.



National Archives Access to Public Records 2015
(PDF Document, 288.16 KB)

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Small Businesses

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to promote Small Business Saturday.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Government is a strong supporter of Small Business Saturday, which was this year held on Saturday December 5. As part of a programme of activity to get behind the event and encourage communities to support their local businesses at a key time in the commercial calendar, the Government worked with Small Business Saturday organisers to hold a flagship market with a diverse range of small companies at HM Treasury. All 21 Government departments were also briefed to raise awareness of the campaign, with many using social media channels to highlight the initiative. In addition, 50 Ministers visited a local business in their area on the day, endorsing the campaign through their own social media channels. We also distributed message packs online to 588 stakeholders to encourage them to reach out to their own memberships and support the day. We are now planning to work with organisers to support Small Business Saturday 2016.

Recall of Unsafe Products Review

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they anticipate the review of unsafe product recall, chaired by Lynn Faulds-Wood, will be published.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The review of the UK unsafe product recall system chaired by Lynn Faulds Wood will be published soon.